WILMINGTON, Del., February 21, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
AstraZeneca believes this lawsuit is legally and factually
unfounded and we intend to appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court, if
the trial court does not reject the jury's verdict. The case was
based on the misleading premise that the Alabama State Medicaid
Agency did not understand the basics on how drug prices are
established and reported.

We believe numerous errors occurred during the proceedings and
that the verdict should not be upheld.

For example, the Court ruled that important information on the
workings of the Alabama pharmacy system be withheld throughout the
trial. The Court also permitted evidence of earlier, unrelated
settlements and proceedings in clear violation of the rules of
evidence. These and other reversible errors were compounded by
negative public comments by the trial lawyers and state leaders
prior to the jury selection process.

AstraZeneca has fully complied with the law, government
guidelines and contracts that govern Medicaid pricing. We currently
provide medicines to Medicaid programs at the lowest price that we
offer to our best business clients, as federal law requires.

AstraZeneca and the State Medicaid program share a common goal
of helping people access the medicines they need.

To help patients who have difficulty affording their medicines,
we offer patient assistance programs side by side with our
medicines. In the last two years alone, AstraZeneca helped more
than 28,800 Alabama patients receive more than $25.5 million in
savings through its prescription savings programs.